Investment advice

[SimonMac]

If you have any debt, pay that off first.

Anything left over stick in shares with a good dividend return, that way you don't really care about the share price as long as dividend's are coming in, I was going to post in the Shares thread, but Lloyds, BATS, BAE, British Land are all held by me, and have all announced bumper dividends in the last few days

[MarillionFan]

If you have any debt, pay that off first.

Anything left over stick in shares with a good dividend return, that way you don't really care about the share price as long as dividend's are coming in, I was going to post in the Shares thread, but Lloyds, BATS, BAE, British Land are all held by me, and have all announced bumper dividends in the last few days

I've been sticking with Zopa to be honest. Got 200k sitting in there now. Getting somewhere between 5.1-5.3% after bad debt at the moment. Love seeing it tick up each day

[SimonMac]

I've been sticking with Zopa to be honest. Got 200k sitting in there now. Getting somewhere between 5.1-5.3% after bad debt at the moment. Love seeing it tick up each day

I am averaging 6.4% over the past 5 years just from dividends, and value growth on top of that is a bonus and no bad debt to even consider

[MarillionFan]

I am averaging 6.4% over the past 5 years just from dividends, and value growth on top of that is a bonus

I just don't trust the market. I had a dog of investments last year and made a capital loss. Happy to have my pension in the stock market though.

[SimonMac]

I just don't trust the market. I had a dog of investments last year and made a capital loss. Happy to have my pension in the stock market though.

As I said I don't care (that much) about capital, the share price only matters when you sell and I have no plans to sell any time soon (20 years from retirement), I just keep reinvesting the dividends back into the shares, if I get over weight in one share (I hold 30 different companies) I stop automatic reinvestment and add those dividends to one of the stocks I am underweight in.

Had my pension since 2013 and it seems to be a good strategy, but can't really tell over 5 years how it will pan out long term, but I have time to ride out any peaks and troughs

[MarillionFan]

As I said I don't care (that much) about capital, the share price only matters when you sell and I have no plans to sell any time soon (20 years from retirement), I just keep reinvesting the dividends back into the shares, if I get over weight in one share (I hold 30 different companies) I stop automatic reinvestment and add those dividends to one of the stocks I am underweight in.

Had my pension since 2013 and it seems to be a good strategy, but can't really tell over 5 years how it will pan out long term, but I have time to ride out any peaks and troughs

So I'm going to increase the cash I have in Zopa over this year using up Aprils ISAs over mine and the wifes accounts to around 350k getting rid of all my low paying savings accounts. That's going to have about 100k protected in ISA and 250k outside. Pensions are now sitting at 450k.

This is taxable income, so I'm shifting that income back into our personal pensions with our rental income to avoid tax.

There's much better investments out there if you want to take some risk, I dont want the risk (assuming Zopa doesnt fail )

None of this is dependent on my contracting income.

[kaiser78]

With my impending divorce, I am going to find the nearest drain and start pouring...

[scooterscot]

Forget these 2-5% returns. Even if you put half of that money into crypto this year it'll ellipse anything you could imagine in 10 years from an ISA.

You'll not see another craze like this for 15-20 years. You'd be mad to ignore it.

[MarillionFan]

Forget these 2-5% returns. Even if you put half of that money into crypto this year it'll ellipse anything you could imagine in 10 years from an ISA.

You'll not see another craze like this for 15-20 years. You'd be mad to ignore it.

I wish you well with this craze. Personally I think it's the most blatant pyramid selling, Ponzi scheme, Emperor's new clothes bubble were the majority are going to lose a fortune and it wil most likely land up taking down most of the worlds stock markets.

It's all a giant con backed by the Russians to destabilise the West.

But good luck.

[lukemg]

Just as an aside, I did some looking into commercial property because it seemed like a way to avoid the attack on residential landlords. Unless you're talking serious money, I think it's a total non-started. You've only got to look at the amount of empty commercial property around and how long it remains dormant - looks like a rapid way to buy an empty shop/office/unit/garage or whatever to me.

I think it requires a LOT more knowledge of the local area and trading etc. For example, there's a nice office for sale in the next town over from me. Looks like an absolute bargain - nice and modern (90's build), perfect for housing a small business. Central location, just off the high street. Problem is, that town is going absolutely nowhere and has been declining for decades - maybe it'll get a resurgence and I'd suddenly own a prime location office - or, more likely, I will have nothing to offer over the much more pleasant and plentiful retail park locations.

Not saying you don't need to consider such things when buying residential property, but if you buy a decent house in an area full of occupied houses then you're unlikely to go a million miles wrong. And likely far easier to sell if you do **** it up.

IF you really want to invest in commercial property, don't be crazy enough to buy a place yourself, use an investment trust e.g. FCPT.
Kicks out dividends monthly, invested in wide variety of high-end commercial property, job done.
ONE WARNING - Don't use a property fund (OEIC) they have to suspend trading/sell property off at firesale rates if everyone bolts. Investment trust doesnt as the underlying investment is unaffected.